Immersion suits are used for example by personnel in search and rescue and other high-risk occupations involving the chance of cold water immersion. The challenge is to create a full body suit that will keep the user dry when immersed in water but at the same time not restrict the user when performing daily activities. With traditional immersion suits for this role the user requires assistance to correctly do up the zippers while donning the suit. An immersion suit that allows the user to don/doff it themselves would be a significant improvement.
Traditional immersion suits usually have two water tight zippers, a donning/doffing zipper plus a defecate/urination zipper for males. With more and more female users, the need for a multi-sex immersion suit entry system is apparent.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,464,795 issued Aug. 14, 1984 to Long et al discloses an easy access underwater diving suit wherein the torso portion of the suit and provides access by a zipper extending diagonally across the front from one shoulder to the opposite hip. The extra long torso portion is extended to permit the wearer to don the suit and is then adjusted to the size of the user and fastened in this position. This construction permits the user to don and doff the suit unaided, however it requires significantly extra material and is bulky when worn.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,862,517 issued Sep. 5, 1989 to Meistrell describes a wet suit with and offset zipper that extends at across the rear of the suit at an angle across the back bone of the user so that the zipper used to close the split does not interfere with bending movements of the user. While this system does use and diagonally extending zipper it is ineffective in solving the problems solved by the present invention.